Course Syllabus
203 - MINISTRY TECHNOLOGIES
This course will deal with the use of technology in a ministry context and will be broken down into three major sections; STUDYING and COMMUNICATING. Tools, techniques and strategies will be examined to leverage modern tools in these areas to provide deeper access to information and more efficient use of time and resources. An emphasis will be placed on the use of the current version of Logos Bible Software in the STUDYING sections of the course.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Student be able to see technology as “tools” for more effective work and begin to understand the use of these tools for their ministry
STUDYING
The student will be able to:
Customize their particular Logos installation for a variety of different study needs and applications. This will include managing and organizing library resources, creating custom study layouts, and managing a variety of program settings.
Utilize the various GUIDES in Logos for deeper study, both textually and topically
Perform a variety of SEARCHES both textually and topically for study and research
Leverage Logos to aide the exegetical process as taught in course #110 - Biblical Exegesis
Keep NOTES and HIGHLIGHT the text of resources both manually and automatically for a variety of purposes
COMMUNICATING
Student will be exposed to visual communication concepts to support sermons, Bible classes and other presentation situations
Student will be exposed to evangelism strategies for social media
Student will be exposed to more effective strategies for presenting and maintaining information on a church website
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
LAPTOP COMPUTER
A laptop computer with Internet capability is required Bear Valley and for this course. Windows PC or MAC is acceptable as long as it is capable of running the Logos Bible Software sufficiently. The school WiFi should provide access for class. Please be good stewards of this access during class time.
LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE - Bear Valley Library
The current version of Logos Bible Software is required for this class. The MOBILE version (for iPad) is NOT sufficient for this course.
This software should be installed and be allowed to fully index BEFORE the start of this class. Indexing can take a long time, so be sure to allow it to run completely without your computer sleeping or shutting down.
ALL Library resources should be downloaded to your device. If you come a MINIMAL, or QUICK installation you may need to download the remaining resources for Logos to fully function in this class. Instructions for downloading missing resources can be found here
We will spend approximately 24 classroom hours (or more) learning to use this tool. If you want to get the most out of this time it is strongly suggested that you take time to watch as many of the training videos on the Logos website as you can. Many of these videos are very short (less than 7 minutes) and will be very helpful to you in the long run.
ASSIGNMENTS
WORKSHEETS (20%) - DUE: See below
The student will complete 4 worksheets that will reinforce aspects of the software such as searching, keywording, exegesis, and more, that we cover in class. More information will be provided during the Logos portion of the course.
Worksheet #1 - DUE: TBD
Worksheet #2 - DUE: TBD
Worksheet #3 - DUE: TBD
Worksheet #4 - DUE: TBD
KEYWORDING (20%) - DUE: MONDAY, April 22
The student will create a list of the “theologically significant” keywords for 8 books of the Bible (3 NT and 3 OT). Care should be taken to examine each word’s distribution throughout the text to distinguish between a “keyword” and a “cluster” word. The list will contain:
• the number of times the word occurs (ie. 17x, 27x, etc…)
• The base English word from the book
• The original language word (indicating root or lemma)
• The list should be organized from the most frequently occurring word to the least frequent (top to bottom).
Gospel of Mark
82x - Jesus (root:Ιησους)
68x - give, deliver, hand over (root:διδωμι)
59x - began, chief priest, high priest (root:αρχω)
56x - man, mankind (root:ανθρωπος)
The following books will be keyworded:
MALACHI
AMOS
PSALM 119
PHILIPPIANS
1 THESSALONIANS
1 PETER
OUTREACH VIDEO (15%) - DUE: Monday, May 6
Video is more and more the medium of choice for our culture. The student will create a 3-5 minute video, suitable for posting on social media, teaching a Bible-based spiritual lesson from a particular text. Be creative - have fun - teach people about God’s word! The teaching should be expository in nature and should have direct application to the audience. Video will be evaluated on the following:
1) Quality and accuracy of the biblical content
2) Quality of the video itself (steadiness, lighting, background, etc…) - WARNING - Do not just sit at a desk in the school to shoot this video. Find a location that will create interest
3) Quality of the speaking (edited if necessary, smooth, personable, etc…)
PRESENTATION SLIDES (15%) - DUE: Monday, May 13
The student will create a deck of 4 slides visually representing the following concepts from Scripture.
1) I am the Light of the World - John 8:12
2) I am the Bread of Life - John 6:48
3) I am the Good Shepherd - John 10:14
4) I am the Way - John 14:6
Each slide must include a full-screen image, the text, and the Bible reference. They will be evaluated on the three basic principles of design discussed in class (controlling eye movement, creating balance, utilizing contrast).
MID-TERM EXAM (15%) - The mid-term exam will cover the Logos Bible Software section of the course. This test will be an “open software” exam. Problems and questions will be presented that must be answered using the tools and reports within the Logos Bible Software.
FINAL EXAM (15%) - The Final Exam will cover the technology portion of the course.
RECOMMENDED READING
MADE TO STICK
by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
The Heath brothers’ book is a great resource to help you craft your message and visual presentation so that it will stick in the minds of your audience. While not all of their suggestions apply to sermons and Bible classes, many of them can and should be applied when they fit.
WIRED FOR MINISTRY
by John P. Jewell
This book provides insight into why technology should be used for ministry but also what problems technology can present. While it suggests some technology use in worship that I would object to from a biblical standpoint, Jewell’s book helps to begin a dialogue of how technology can help in ministry.
PRESENTATION ZEN
by Garr Reynolds
This book is an excellent resource to help anyone giving presentations with PowerPoint (or other software) make those presentations more effective. This is NOT a software instruction manual for PowerPoint, but rather provides visual communication concepts to help with color, type and working with images. If you want to make better presentations – this book is a MUST READ.
PRESENTATION ZEN: DESIGN
by Garr Reynolds
This book follows PRESENTATION ZEN with more of a visual design component. This books deals very specifically with the issues related to designing your slide for better communication. Where his first book deals with general concepts of type and color and imagery, PRESENTATION ZEN: DESIGN gets to the specifics. What typefaces should you use and why? What color combinations work best? All of these questions are answered in this book.
SLIDE:OLOGY
by Nancy Duarte